Warner Animation Group
The Warner Animation Group (WAG) is the feature animation division of Warner Bros. Entertainment. Established on January 10, 1988 as Warner Bros. Feature Animation. Its first film The Legend Ninja Warrior: The Chronicles of the Lost Destiny was released on September 21, 1990 and its latest release was Medieval Quest on November 8, 2019; with their next release being Alaina Gleen 2 on February 21, 2020. Background After the closure of Warner Bros. Cartoons in 1969 due to the rising costs and declining returns of short subject production, Warner Bros. released eleven animated features between 1973 and 1994, all of which were produced by outside studios. These features included: Treasure Island, Oliver Twist, The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie, Animalympics, Hey Good Lookin', Civil War, Twice Upon a Time, and Rainbow Brite and the Star Stealer, as well as compilation films starring the Looney Tunes characters, such as The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie, Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales, Daffy Duck's Fantastic Island (1983), and Daffy Duck's Quackbusters. Starting in 1979 with The Legend Ninja Warrior, Warner Bros. became one of the primary distributor of some animated features produced by Valentina Animation, many of which, such as Tales of the Journey and Animals Story, were notable critical and financial successes. In the wake of critical and box office success of Valentina's animated feature, it mark Warner Bros. having its own feature animated division. History 1988-1993: Starting the feature animation Warner Bros. Feature Animation was officially established in January 10, 1988 to produce theatrical animated films to rival Disney. Carolina Zavala was brought in to head the new division. The first of Warners' animated features was The Legend Ninja Warrior: The Chronicles of the Lost Destiny, which was co-produced by Valentina Animation. The Chronicles of the Lost Destiny received mixed to positive reviews from critics and proved to be a success at the box office. Animation production for Space Jam was primarily done at the new Sherman Oaks studio and Valentina Animation in Burbank, although much of the work was outsourced to animation studios around the world. Its next film, Tales of the Journey: The Mythical Woods, a sequel to Lorena Valentina's Tales of the Journey. The film received positive reviews, but it underperformed at the box office due to lack of promotion. However, it was a great success when released on home video; accompanied by a $15 million advertising campaign, the video sold over three million copies in the first month alone, topping the charts and becoming one of the top-selling VHS releases of all time. Coming soon! 1994-2003: The fall of Warner Bros. Feature Animation Space Jam (1996), a live-action/animated hybrid which starred NBA star Michael Jordan opposite Bugs Bunny (Jordan had previously appeared with the Looney Tunes in a number of Nike commercials). It was directed by Joe Pytka (live-action) and Bruce W. Smith and Tony Cervone (animation). Space Jam ''received mixed to negative reviews from critics but proved to be a success at the box office. Animation production for ''Space Jam was primarily done at the new Sherman Oaks studio, although much of the work was outsourced to animation studios around the world. Before the success of Space Jam, a Turner Entertainment-run studio that spun off from Hanna-Barbera were already producing animated features following the success of the Disney features. The first was The Pagemaster, a fantasy adventure featuring the performances of Macaulay Culkin and Christopher Lloyd with live-action segments serving as bookends for the film's story. Released by 20th Century Fox, the film under-performed and received negative reviews from critics during its holiday release of 1994. After the merger with Turner and Warner Bros' parent Time Warner in 1996, Turner Feature Animation completed its second and last feature, Cats Don't Dance (1997), which was met with warm critical and audience reception but under-performed due to little marketing and fanfare. By the time of the film's release however, Turner Feature Animation had merged with Warner Feature Animation and transferred a majority of its staff from said studio while some of its staff went on to join its feature animation rival, Paramount Feature Animation. The following year, its next film, Quest for Camelot (1998), underwent production difficulties and received negative reviews from critics, however its soundtrack (such as one of the songs, "The Prayer") received some accolades. In the same year, Warner Feature Animation signed a co-production deal with ClearWorld Entertainment to co-produce Lucky & Master (2000), which it was already in pre-production. The third animated feature from Warner Feature Animation, Brad Bird's The Iron Giant (1999), received a positive reception from critics and audiences. However, the studio decided to rush its release to the end of the summer with a rushed marketing push. The studio's fourth film, ClearWorld's Lucky & Master (2000), was received a positive reception from critics and audiences and a critical and financial success; it grossed over $543 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing non-Disney animated film of the year, overpowering Disney's Dinosaur. In the same year, Valentina's Future DX, WBFA's fifth animated feature, received a positive reception from critics and audiences, and was a modest success at the box office. The studio's next film, Osmosis Jones (2001), was another animated/live action mix that suffered through another troubled production. This time, the animation segments, directed by Tom Sito and Piet Kroon, were completed long before the live-action segments were filmed, eventually directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly and starring Bill Murray. The resulting film received mixed reviews and under-performed, although it was successful on home video for Warner's Television Animation department to produce a related Saturday morning cartoon, Ozzy & Drix (2002–2004) for its WB broadcast network. Following the releases of The Iron Giant and Osmosis Jones, the feature animation staff was scaled back, and the entire animation staff - feature and television - were moved to the larger Sherman Oaks facility. Looney Tunes: Back in Action, was released in 2003. It was intended to be the starting point for a reestablishment of the classic cartoons brands, including a planned series of new Looney Tunes theatrical shorts, produced by Back in Action writer and producer Larry Doyle. After Back in Action, directed by Joe Dante (live action) and Eric Goldberg (animation), received mixed reviews from critics and under-performed at the box office, production was shut down on the new shorts. However, several TV series based upon the Looney Tunes property, Baby Looney Tunes (2002–2005), Loonatics Unleashed (2005–2007), The Looney Tunes Show (2011–2014), and Wabbit (2015–present) have assumed the place of the original shorts on television. 2004-2013: Conversion to computer animation After the box office failure of Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Warner Bros. laid off most of the employees at the Feature Animation studio, downsizing it to one unit and beginning plans to move into fully computer-animated features. A handful of employees were offered positions for computer animation. Subsequently, on January 9, 2004 Warner Bros. Feature Animation officially announced they were becoming a fully CGI studio and renamed Warner Animation Studios, now with a staff of 580 people and began selling off all of its traditional animation equipment. More coming soon! 2013-present: Warner Animation Group today In January 2013, Jeff Robinov (then head of the studio's motion picture division) founded a screenplay development department, nicknamed a "think tank" for developing theatrical animated films, as Warner Animation Studios renamed to Warner Animation Group. The group includes John Requa, Glenn Ficarra, Nicholas Stoller, Jared Stern, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Warner Bros. created the group with the hope that the box office reception of their films will be competitive with other animation studios' releases. The group is reportedly somewhat similar to Pixar Animation Studios' "brain trust" in terms of how its members consult with one another and give feedback on each other's projects. On February 7, 2014, Warner Animation Group released The Lego Movie, a film animated by Animal Logic, which also provided the animation for both spinoffs. It was met with positive reviews and proved to be a box office success. On January 7, 2013, Warner Animation Group announced that Jeremy: Ultimate Battle, based upon the popular JeremyWorks series, Jeremy Universal, is the studio second film and was released on July 15, 2015. The studio's next feature that Warner Animation Group also announced was Alaina Gleen, a new CGI feature film that marked a return to the Alaina franchise, followed in 2016 to critical acclaim and commercial success and was nominated for several accolades. Warner Animation Group announced their fourth film Storks, which was originally scheduled for a 2015 release but was pushed to February 10, 2017 and later to September 23, 2016. On the same day, they announced their fifth film Smallfoot, based on the book Yeti Tracks by Sergio Pablos, was originally going to have a 2016 release as it was first announced on January 7, 2013. Then it was scheduled for release on February 9, 2018 but was later moved to September 14, 2018 and then September 28, 2018. On May 3, 2013, the day when Little Mattie ''was released, Warner Animation Group formed a multi-year production deal with JeremyWorks Studios to co-produced their films, such as ''Juliana and the Power Gang and Medieval Quest. On February 7, 2014, the same day The Lego Movie was released, it was reported that Jared Stern and Michelle Morgan were hired to write The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. The sequel was announced to be released on May 26, 2017, but later that year it was reported that a spin-off film featuring Batman from The Lego Movie might take the sequel's release date thus pushing the sequel to May 18, 2018. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller returned to script and co-direct the sequel. Rob Schrab was set to direct the film, but was later replaced by Mike Mitchell due to "creative differences". On June 2016, the release date was again pushed to February 8, 2019. In the summer of 2015, Warner Bros. participated in a bidding war against Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation for the rights to produce The Emoji Movie, based on a script by Tony Leondis and Eric Siegel. Sony won the bidding war in July and released the film in 2017. Storks was animated by Sony Pictures Imageworks. Upon release, it was met with mixed reviews from critics. On February 10, 2017, Warner Animation Group released The Lego Batman Movie, which received positive reviews from critics and was a box office success. The Lego Ninjago Movie, based on the Lego Ninjago theme of Lego toys, was released on September 22, 2017. Upon release, the film was met with mixed reviews from critics and became the first film from the studio to fail to recoup its budget. Upon its September 28, 2018 release, Smallfoot, based on Yeti Tracks by Sergio Pablos, received a 76% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with mostly positive reviews from critics and has grossed over $214 million worldwide. Upon its February 8, 2019 release, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, a sequel of The Lego Movie, received a 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes with mostly positive reviews from critics but only grossed over $190.6 million worldwide, almost barely recouping its budget and almost becoming a box office failure. On December 2019, Warner Bros.' LEGO film rights expired and The LEGO Group instead, made a deal with Universal Pictures (who owns the animation studios DreamWorks Animation and Illumination) to make new films based on LEGO toys based on Universal franchises such as Fast and Furious and Jurassic Park. In October 2019, UK-based Locksmith Animation formed a multi-year production deal with Warner Bros., who will distribute Locksmith's films under the WAG label, with Locksmith aiming to release a film every 12-18 months, although their first film Ron's Gone Wrong will be released on February 26, 2021 by 20th Century Fox, though its animation division will not co-produce that film, after Disney completed its purchase of Fox's parent 21st Century Fox, intending to include Fox films into its streaming service Disney+. Upcoming releases A live action/animated film based on Tom & Jerry is set for release on December 23, 2020. Space Jam 2, starring LeBron James, is schedule for release on July 16, 2021. Process Following in a similar fashion like JeremyWorks Studios, Sony Pictures Animation, and Paramount Animation, the studio outsources their animated films to different animation and visual effects studios since 2002. This would include Valentina Animation (The Legend Ninja Warrior franchise, Tales of the Journey: The Mythical Woods, Olivia's Life, Life of Teenagers, Nathalie's Family, The Missing Riddle, Music Magic Legacy, Future DX, Love of Pairs, Steampunk's Life, A Pairs Mystery, Me & Katty, All[[All Hail Princess| Hail Princess]], Legendary Quest, Music Magic Remix, Howl of the Moon and Music Magic Experience), JeremyWorks Studios (Life of Teenagers, Nathalie's Family, The Missing Riddle, Jeremy: Battle Unleashed and [[Jeremy: Ultimate Generations|Jeremy: ''Ultimate Generations]]), JeremyWorks CAD (''Alternate Reality franchise, Juliana and the Power Gang,'' and ''Medieval Quest), Animal Logic (The Lego Movie franchise), Sony Pictures Imageworks (Fairy Tale Times franchise, Storks,'' and ''Smallfoot), CreativeNext Animation (Alaina Gleen and Beautiful Explorer), Renegade Animation (Jeremy: Battle Unleashed and [[Jeremy: Ultimate Generations|Jeremy: ''Ultimate Generations]]), Frederator Studios ([[Jeremy: Ultimate Generations|Jeremy: Ultimate Generations]]) and Reel FX Creative Studios (''Scoob! and DC Super Pets). Initially, from 1989 to 2003, the studio used to produce traditionally hand-drawn animated films in-house. The studio is also planning to push for more original films like Smallfoot and Scooby-Doo as well as more that feature both animation and live-action with Space Jam 2 and Tom and Jerry ''starting out this tactic. The budget for their films usually range between $60–80 million. Their most expensive film to date, ''The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part, cost $99 million to make. The screenplay department is reportedly somewhat similar to Pixar Animation Studios' "brain trust" in terms of how its members consult with one another and give feedback on each other's projects. The group is nicknamed the "think tank". Filmography Released films Upcoming films Digital films Short films Franchises Trivia Coming soon! See also * Warner Bros. Animation Category:Company Category:WarnerMedia Category:Warner Bros.